1930 - Births

Peratae (Latin) Peratai (Greek) One of the Gnostic bodies or associations, the Naaseni or Ophites, the "Serpent Gnostics," so called because of the mystical prominence of the serpent symbol in their rites and observances.

This Gnostic body is said by scholars to have been founded by Euphrates, who possessed wide astrological knowledge, and because of the teachings which his school followed were they named Peratai -- wanderers, i.e., on this earth of trial and tribulation; or "those of the other side," signifying individuals who regarded themselves as merely wanderers or pilgrims in regions far from their native home, the spirit.

Among other ideas, they held that the celestial bodies in a person's horoscope are the instruments of destiny or karma, which because of causes engendered in other lives bring the individuals to birth on this earth under the destined yoke marked in the celestial spaces by the sun, moon, and planets; and in order to protect themselves from the malignant influence of the genii of the planets they wore serpent sigils or talismans.

C. W. King states that the Ophites were the descendants of the Bacchic Mystae, basing this on the fact that coins of the period bear the Bacchic serpent, which is represented as raising himself out of the sacred coffer, while the reverse side of the coin shows two serpents entwined around torches (Gnostics and Their Remains 225).

(See also: Peratae, Peratai , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Born in 1900 in Salida, Colorado, to a peripatetic civil engineer, White lived first in Kansas and then Louisiana. He enrolled to fight in the First World War, but saw only the tail end of it, spending a year in the US Navy before matriculating at Louisiana State University in 1919. In 1921 he transferred to Columbia University where he studied psychology, taking a BA in 1923 and an MA in 1924. Although at the same university as Franz Boas, Leslie White missed the founding father of American anthropology altogether. However, his interests ev ...

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Leslie White, Leslie White - Biography, Leslie White - White's anthropology, Leslie White - Selected publications

Read more here: » Leslie White: Encyclopedia II - Leslie White - Biography

From 1911 to 1916 Cummings attended Harvard, from which he received a B.A. degree in 1915 and a Master's degree for English and Classical Studies in 1916. While at Harvard, he befriended John Dos Passos. Several of Cummings' poems were published, beginning in 1912, in the Harvard Monthly, a school newspaper on which Cummings worked with fellow Harvard Aesthetes Dos Passos and S. Foster Damon, and in 1915 in the Harvard Advocate. From an early age, Cummings studied the classical languages of Greek and Latin. His affinity ...

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E. E. Cummings, E. E. Cummings - Education and early career, E. E. Cummings - Poetry, E. E. Cummings - Criticisms, E. E. Cummings - Cummings as a painter, E. E. Cummings - List of shows, E. E. Cummings - Cummings as a playwright, E. E. Cummings - The final decade, E. E. Cummings - Awards, E. E. Cummings - Personal life, E. E. Cummings - Marriages, E. E. Cummings - Bibliography, E. E. Cummings - Notes

Read more here: » E. E. Cummings: Encyclopedia II - E. E. Cummings - Education and early career

In 1922, with the help of the Kansas City Democratic machine led by boss Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected judge of the County Court of Jackson County, Missouri — an administrative, not judicial, position. Although he was defeated for reelection in 1924, he won back the office in 1926 and was reelected in 1930. Truman performed his duties in this office diligently, and won personal acclaim for several popular public works projects, including an extensive series of fine roads for the growing use of the automobiles, building of a new County Court building, and a series of 12 Madonna of the Trail monuments to pioneer ...

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Harry S. Truman, Harry S. Truman - Early life, Harry S. Truman - Political career, Harry S. Truman - Presidency, Harry S. Truman - Israel, Harry S. Truman - Civil rights, Harry S. Truman - Cabinet, Harry S. Truman - Supreme Court appointments, Harry S. Truman - Major legislation signed, Harry S. Truman - Post-presidency, Harry S. Truman - Scholarly Secondary Sources, Harry S. Truman - Primary Sources, Harry S. Truman - Truman's middle initial, Harry S. Truman - Memorials, Harry S. Truman - Media, Harry S. Truman - Notes

Read more here: » Harry S. Truman: Encyclopedia II - Harry S. Truman - Political career

Cow The ancients employed certain animals as symbols to convey specific aspects of philosophical and religious teachings to the multitude, and "the cow-symbol is one of the grandest and most philosophical among all others in its inner meaning" (SD 2:470).

Generally, the cow represents the fructifying power in nature -- the Divine Mother or feminine principle. Among the Scandinavians that which first appeared at the birth of the universe was the divine cosmic cow, Audhumla, from whom flowed four streams of milk, providing sustenance to all the beings that followed.

Among the Greeks the founding of a new race was associated with the cow -- as instances, Io and Europa. In Egypt the goddesses representing the aspect of the Universal Mother are associated with cow symbols, principally Hathor and Isis. In India the cow symbol is reverenced: Kamaduh or Surabhi (the cow of plenty) represents the nourishing and sustaining vital and productive principle in nature. The goddesses of lunar type are found to be connected in symbology with the cow.

"The cow was in every country the symbol of the passive generative power of nature, Isis, Vach, Venus -- the mother of the prolific god of love, Cupid, but, at the same time, that of the Logos whose symbol became with the Egyptians and the Indians -- the bull -- as testified to by Apis and the Hindu bulls in the most ancient temples. In esoteric philosophy the cow is the symbol of creative nature, and the Bull (her calf) the spirit which vivifies her, or 'the Holy Spirit' " (SD 2:418n).

See also BULL; CALF

(See also: Cow , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

1991 - January-February. January 5 - Vasko Popa, Yugoslavian poet (b. 1922) January 8 - Steve Clark, English guitarist (Def Leppard) (b.1960) January 11 - Carl David Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905) January 17 - King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903) January 29 - Yasushi Inoue, Japanese historian (b. 1907) January 30 - John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908 January 30 - John McIntire, American actor (b. 1907) ...

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1991, 1991 - Events, 1991 - January, 1991 - February, 1991 - March, 1991 - April, 1991 - May, 1991 - June, 1991 - July, 1991 - August, 1991 - September, 1991 - October, 1991 - November, 1991 - December, 1991 - Undated events, 1991 - Births, 1991 - Deaths, 1991 - January-February, 1991 - March-May, 1991 - June-December, 1991 - Nobel Prizes, 1991 - Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Read more here: » 1991: Encyclopedia II - 1991 - Deaths

Mercury For the Latin god,

See HERMES

Also the closest visible planet to the sun. Irregularities discovered in its orbit led astronomers at one time to suspect that there is an inter-Mercurial planet, and such a suspected planet, once claimed to have been seen crossing the solar disk, was named Vulcan. Mercury is included in the enumeration of the seven sacred planets of the ancients.

Theosophy, as it does with all the visible planetary bodies, considers Mercury to be the lowest globe of a septenary chain of globes; so that this planet is not one of the seven globes of the earth-chain (SD 1:163 et seq). A connection with the earth-chain, however, is found in that the spiritual rector or genius of the Mercury planetary chain has especial influence over globe E of the earth-chain, and over the fifth or present root-race of our globe D. Astrologically, the zodiacal houses of Mercury are Gemini and Virgo; it has given its name to the day of the week Wednesday.

As Mercury is about ready to inaugurate its last or seventh round, it is far older as a chain in its present imbodiment than is the earth-chain in its. It is supposed to receive seven times more light and other solar energies from the sun than the earth receives. "Mercury is, as an astrological planet, still more occult and mysterious than Venus. It is identical with the Mazdean Mithra, the genius, or god, 'established between the Sun and the Moon, the perpetual companion of "Sun" of Wisdom' " (SD 2:28). Esoterically the planets Mercury, Venus, and the Moon in ancient ceremonial rites were represented by three initiators. This is the origin of the three Magi or wise men associated with Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

The metal mercury plays a great part in alchemy, being one of the trinity of sulphur, mercury, salt -- denoting spirit, water, and blood; or flame, nature, and mother.

(See also: Mercury , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Infinite (from Latin in not + finitus ended)

That which is endless or not finite; ancient peoples expressed the frontierless, beginningless, and endless hierarchical immensities, whether of space, time, spirit, or matter in many ways, as in the 'eyn soph (without bounds or frontiers) of the Qabbalah, the Hindu parabrahman (beyond Brahman), the Void, the Sunyata of Buddhism, the Ginnungagap (gaping void) of the Scandinavians, the Deep of the Bible, or the waters of space, etc.

Many philosophers of antiquity considered it futile to speculate upon that which is ex hypothesi beyond the understanding of the human mind, confessedly finite in function and range. For whatever the human mind can shape or figurate to itself as a concept must be de facto finite in itself, however great or grand. Infinite was never used as a synonym for deity or any divine being, for however immense in its incomprehensible vastness in both time and space, it could be nevertheless only finite, for the human mind itself had given birth to the human thought, and the human mind is finite.

Similarly, the Absolute is not the infinite, for absolute means "freed" or "liberated," such as the cosmic hierarch of a universe; and this could not be infinite or boundless, but must have been of finite origin, grown into stature of divine grandeur. The ancients taught that the universe was filled with gods, and that the universes were as numerous in beginningless space and time, as number in itself is beginningless and endless and therefore incommensurable.

"The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded and the conditioned";

"the immutably Infinite and the absolutely Boundless can neither will, think, nor act. To do this it has to become finite, and it does so, by its ray penetrating into the mundane egg -- infinite space -- and emanating from it as a finite god" (SD 1:56, 354).

(See also: Infinite , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Although Chaplin had his major successes in the United States and was a resident from 1914 to 1952, he retained his British nationality. During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American activities" as a suspected communist; and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to keep extensive files on him, tried to end his United States residency. FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for a second front in the war, and reached a critical level in the late 1940's, when Congressional figures threatened to call him as a witness in hearings. This was never done, probably because of fear of Chaplin's abi ...

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Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin - Birth, Charlie Chaplin - Childhood, Charlie Chaplin - Stage, Charlie Chaplin - America, Charlie Chaplin - Auteur, Charlie Chaplin - United Artists, Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin - Politics, Charlie Chaplin - McCarthyism, Charlie Chaplin - Academy Award, Charlie Chaplin - Marriages, Charlie Chaplin - Mildred Harris, Charlie Chaplin - Lita Grey, Charlie Chaplin - Oona O'Neill, Charlie Chaplin - Knighted, Charlie Chaplin - Death, Charlie Chaplin - Misinformation, Charlie Chaplin - Legacy, Charlie Chaplin - Media, Charlie Chaplin - Trivia, Charlie Chaplin - Filmography, Charlie Chaplin - Short films as actor, Charlie Chaplin - Feature films, Charlie Chaplin - Notes

Read more here: » Charlie Chaplin: Encyclopedia II - Charlie Chaplin - McCarthyism

April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (116th in leap years). There are 250 days remaining. April 25 - Events. 1607 - Eighty Years' War: Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. 1707 - An Allied Austrian army is defeated by Bourbon army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession. 1719 - Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published. 1792 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes t ...

Including:

• April 25 - Events
• April 25 - Births
• April 25 - Deaths
• April 25 - Holidays and observances

Read more here: » April 25: Encyclopedia - April 25

Psyche (Greek) [from psycho breathe, blow; cf Greek pneuma from pneo to breathe, blow; Latin anima, spiritus all connected with breath, wind, spirit, life, soul]

Used in classic Greek as vaguely as is our word soul; but in Platonic philosophy and theosophical usage, the lower or carnally influenced aspect of the mind or soul, as contrasted with the higher or spiritually influenced aspect: kama-manas as against buddhi-manas, the latter represented by the Greek nous. From these two words are derived the adjectives psychic and noetic.

The story of Cupid and Psyche -- where Psyche represents the human soul as such, apart from special connection with buddhi or kama -- depicts the search for happiness, or the course of human love. Psyche is of mortal birth, but so beautiful that Venus herself becomes jealous and sends Cupid to inspire Psyche with love for an unworthy object. But Cupid himself becomes enamored of Psyche. The love between Cupid and Psyche cannot be realized in the atmosphere of earthly passion and delusion, and is fulfilled only when Psyche, reconciled with Venus, is taken to the Olympian heights. The emblem of Psyche was the butterfly, which in winged joy comes forth into the sunlight from its prison of caterpillar and chrysalis.

The Greek verb from which psyche is derived also means to chill, make cold; and this has an application to the psyche as the lower part of the human soul and therefore closely connected with the kama-rupa and astral light after death. Hence it is that those who dabble in necromantic experiments, or even in psychic experiences, often refer to a damp, chill, and often clammy sensation in the atmosphere when contact with these kama-rupic entities is made. This should be warning that such contact is not only highly unwholesome, but a danger signal that one is dealing with death and decay.

(See also: Psyche , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

The exact year of Tecumseh's birth is unknown; 1768 is the generally accepted estimate. He was born in the Ohio Country, probably in one of the Shawnee towns along the Scioto River. Nineteenth century traditions (and current Ohio historical markers) placed his birthplace further west, along the Little Miami River, although the Shawnee towns there were not settled until after Tecumseh's birth. Tecumseh's name (which has been translated variously "I Cross the Way" or "A Panther Crouching for His Prey") was a reference to his family clan (or ph ...

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Tecumseh, Tecumseh - Early years, Tecumseh - Tecumseh's War, Tecumseh - War of 1812, Tecumseh - Miscellaneous, Tecumseh - Tributes, Tecumseh - Namings, Tecumseh - Tecumseh in fiction, Tecumseh - Quotations, Tecumseh - Notes

Read more here: » Tecumseh: Encyclopedia II - Tecumseh - Early years

Water A primary cosmic element with almost innumerable manifestations, corresponding to the Hindu apas tattva and to the akasic waters of space. Its most fundamental meaning is that of space or akasa, the great mother of all, the feminine receptive principle over and in which broods the fire of spirit. "The first principle of things, according to Thales and other ancient philosophers. Of course this is not water on the material plane, but in a figurative sense for the potential fluid contained in boundless space. This was symbolized in ancient Egypt by Kneph, the 'unrevealed' god, who was represented as the serpent -- the emblem of eternity -- encircling a water-urn, with his head hovering over the waters, which he incubates with his breath. 'And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' (Gen. i). The honey-dew, the food of the gods and of the creative bees on the Yggdrasil, falls during the night upon the tree of life from the 'divine waters, the birth-place of the gods.' Alchemists claim that when pre-Adamic earth is reduced by the Alkahest to its first substance, it is like clear water. The Alkahest is 'the one and the invisible, the water, the first principle, in the second transformation' " (TG 368).

Water corresponds with soul, representing the middle world between spirit or fire on the one hand, and matter or earth on the other. It corresponds to the astral plane as compared with the physical; and here we

See its quality of instability, mobility, having no fixed shape but adapting itself to other shapes, dissolving solid bodies and re-precipitating them. It corresponds to the psychomental nature as contrasted with the spiritual and the physical, and to the liquid state of physical matter, though in this sense it is the water subdivision of the earth element. Water and fire are necessary elements of life, as are their correspondences the moon and sun.

(See also: Water , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

In 1964, Life magazine published a famous photograph of Malcolm X holding an M1 Carbine and pulling back the curtains to peer out of a window. This photograph is a popular image on T-shirts and often appears with the slogan "By any means necessary." The photo was taken in connection with Malcolm's declaration that he would defend himself from the daily death threats which he and his family were receiving. The undercover FBI informants warned officials that Malcolm X had been marked for assassination. One officer undercover with the Nation of Islam is said to have reported that he had be ...

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Malcolm X, Malcolm X - Name, Malcolm X - Birth and early years, Malcolm X - Prison, Malcolm X - Nation of Islam, Malcolm X - Marriage, Malcolm X - Hajj, Malcolm X - A Changed Man, Malcolm X - Africa, Malcolm X - Death and aftermath, Malcolm X - Funeral, Malcolm X - Biographies and speeches, Malcolm X - Notes

Read more here: » Malcolm X: Encyclopedia II - Malcolm X - Death and aftermath

Joan adopted six children, according to L.A. Times articles from the time, though she kept only four. The first was Christina (born June 11, 1939), whom Crawford adopted in 1940 while she was single. The second was Christopher (born April 1941), whom Joan adopted in June of that year. In 1942, Christopher's biological mother found out where he was and managed to get him back. The third child was an 8-year-old named Phillip Terry, Jr. (born 1935), whom Joan and then husband Phillip Terry adopted in April 1943, but did not keep. The fou ...

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Joan Crawford, Joan Crawford - Early life, Joan Crawford - Career, Joan Crawford - Marriages, Joan Crawford - Adopted children, Joan Crawford - Religion, Joan Crawford - Work at Pepsi, Joan Crawford - Final Years, Joan Crawford - Legacy, Joan Crawford - In pop culture, Joan Crawford - Filmography

Read more here: » Joan Crawford: Encyclopedia II - Joan Crawford - Adopted children

Carlos Saúl Menem (born July 2, 1930) was President of Argentina from July 8, 1989 to December 10, 1999 for the Justicialist Party (Peronist). Carlos Menem - Background. He was born into the Muslim family of Saúl Menem and Mohibe Akil, Syrian immigrants in the small town of Anillaco, in the Argentine province of La Rioja. He was trained as a lawyer at the University of Córdoba and became a supporter of Juan Perón. Menem campaigned for political prisoners and was arrested in 1957 for suppor ...

Including:

• Carlos Menem - Background
• Carlos Menem - Political career
• Carlos Menem - President
• Carlos Menem - Continuing political career
• Carlos Menem - Corruption charges

Read more here: » Carlos Menem: Encyclopedia - Carlos Menem

Ten-brel Chug-nyi rTen-hBrel hchu-gnis (Tibetan) In philosophy, the twelve interdependent contributories to the origination of all phenomena, equivalent to the Sanskrit nidanas. As each one of these twelve originants or causes is dependent upon its predecessor, from which it is emanated, owing to a process of reaction the predecessor is karmically also dependent for its manifestation on its successor, and thus the twelve are not simultaneous in origination but occur in a certain regular sequence; because of this inseparable interdependence they also of necessity coordinate in action.

They are rendered in the Pratitya-samutpada as: 1) ma-rig-pa (Sanskrit avidya) nonwisdom; 2) hDu-bYed (Sanskrit samskara) aggregative forces; 3) rNam-Ches (Sanskrit vijnana) will, consciousness; 4) rMin-gZugs (Sanskrit nama-rupa) name-form; 5) Skye-mched (Sanskrit shadayatana) the six sense organs; 6) sparsa (Sanskrit sparsa) contact (for mind or senses); 7) tShor-ba (Sanskrit vedana) feeling; 8) sRed-pa (Sanskrit trishna) desire, thirst; 9) len-pa (Sanskrit upadana) sensual enthrallment; 10) sird-pa (Sanskrit bhava) being; 11) che-ba (Sanskrit jati) birth; and 12) rGa (Sanskrit jaramarana) old age and death.

Ten-brel chung-nyi is the Tibetan expression of the causal relations inherent in and affecting peregrinating monads, which bring about manifestation in successive imbodiments; this Buddhist teaching shows a somewhat more elaborate philosophical development in the Tibetan doctrine than elsewhere. Freedom from the entangling relations affecting consciousness is to be found by an earnest and strict following of the Four Noble Truths leading into the Noble Eightfold Path; yet the essence of the religion of the buddhas is in the words of Gautama Buddha: "To cease from all evil or wrong doing; to become enamored of virtue; to cleanse one's own heart or nature -- here is the religion of the Buddhas."

See also NIDANA

(See also: Ten-brel Chug-nyi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

1875 - January - April. January 12 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China. February 27 - Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governor William Irwin. March 3 - The first performance of Bizet’s Carmen at the Opéra Comique, Paris March 3 - The first organized indoor game of ice hockey was played between two pick-up teams at the Victoria S ...

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1875, 1875 - Events, 1875 - January - April, 1875 - May - August, 1875 - September - December, 1875 - Unknown date, 1875 - Births, 1875 - January, 1875 - February, 1875 - March, 1875 - April, 1875 - May, 1875 - June, 1875 - July, 1875 - August, 1875 - September, 1875 - October, 1875 - December, 1875 - Deaths

Read more here: » 1875: Encyclopedia II - 1875 - Events

Demographics of Lebanon - The Sectarian System. Lebanon's religious divisions are extremely complicated, and the country is made up by a multitude of religious groupings. The ecclesiastical and demographic patterns of the sects are complex. Divisions and rivalries between groups date back as far as 15 centuries, and still are a factor today. The pattern of settlement has changed little since the 7th century, but instances of civil strife and ethnic cleansing - most recently during the Lebanese Civil War - has brought some important changes to the ...

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Demographics of Lebanon, Demographics of Lebanon - Ethnic groups, Demographics of Lebanon - The Lebanese, Demographics of Lebanon - Palestinian Refugees, Demographics of Lebanon - Syrian Workers and the 1994 Naturalization, Demographics of Lebanon - Other Immigrants, Demographics of Lebanon - Religious Groups, Demographics of Lebanon - The Sectarian System, Demographics of Lebanon - Religious Population Statistics, Demographics of Lebanon - The Lebanese Diaspora, Demographics of Lebanon - Civil War Refugees and Displaced Persons, Demographics of Lebanon - Population Statistics

Read more here: » Demographics of Lebanon: Encyclopedia II - Demographics of Lebanon - Religious Groups

Undulatory Theory The theory that light is propagated in waves, devised by Young, Fresnel, and others to explain certain phenomena, such as diffraction, which could not be explained by the corpuscular or emission theory of Newton. It has been elaborated into that branch of physics known as physical optics.

Waves imply a medium to convey them -- the hypothetical luminiferous ether, and here we encounter difficulties due to the attempt to endow it with the attributes rendered familiar by our experience of physical matter. The existence of waves is demonstrable and they can be measured; but the ether is necessarily neither gas, liquid, nor solid, and we need to wait until we have discovered more about its properties. "Atoms, Ether, or both, modern speculation cannot get out of the circle of ancient thought; and the latter was soaked through with archaic occultism. Undulatory or corpuscular theory -- it is all one. It is speculation from the aspects of phenomena, not from the knowledge of the essential nature of the cause and causes" (SD 1:528).

Light, as one of the forms of radiation, is in the view of theosophy an efflux or substance, ultimately to be traced back to a source or focus which gave it birth and from and through which it therefore pours as a radiation of vitality. Light, and most other forms of radiation, partake of both an undulatory and corpuscular character, for in one sense it is both, and in another sense it is neither, for its undulations or its discrete particles are merely the methods by which it subjects itself to human examination. In itself it is both force and substance, and as everything in the universe is in an unceasing state of vibration or constant movement, even a discrete particle -- and an aggregate of discrete particles, because of their vibrational activities -- is as readily conceivable as undulatory in character as corpuscular. The important thing about light is not so much its modes of motion or manifestation, but the fact that light is the vital efflux or substance flowing forth from a living being, whether microcosmic or macrocosmic. The same observations, mutatis mutandis, may be said of other forms of radiation -- electricity, magnetism its alter ego, heat, and even, on far higher planes, thought and consciousness.

(See also: Undulatory Theory , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

1998 - Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Amartya Sen ...

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1998, 1998 - Events, 1998 - January, 1998 - February, 1998 - March, 1998 - April, 1998 - May, 1998 - June, 1998 - July, 1998 - August, 1998 - September, 1998 - October, 1998 - November, 1998 - December, 1998 - Unknown Dates, 1998 - Births, 1998 - Deaths, 1998 - January-February, 1998 - March-July, 1998 - August-December, 1998 - Unknown date, 1998 - Nobel Prizes, 1998 - Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998 - Fields Medalists, 1998 - Templeton Prize

Read more here: » 1998: Encyclopedia II - 1998 - Nobel Prizes

Thor (Scandinavian) Thorr (Icelandic) [from thonor thunder; cf Swedish tordon, German donner]

Best known as the Norse god of thunder and lightning, champion of the gods and subduer of giants in the ongoing battle between these opposites: gods meaning energy and giants typifying inertia. Like the Latin Jupiter, Thor controls the weather and represents the planet Jupiter. The hair of his beautiful wife Sif represents the golden harvest, whether of grain or of experience -- the mead or nectar of the gods.

The sagas depict Thor as blunt, hot-tempered, without fraud or guile, of few words and ready blows. His chariot, drawn by the two goats Toothcrusher and Toothgnasher, has an iron whiffletree, and sparks fly from its wheels and from the goats' hooves. Thor's fiery eyes color the scarlet clouds, his beard is red, on his brow he wears a crown of stars, and under his feet rests the earth whose defender he is. His chariot cannot cross the rainbow bridge, Bifrost, for its lightnings would set the bridge on fire, so the god daily fords the river beneath it when he attends the Thing (parliament) of the gods.

The symbology connected with this deity is multiform and complex, as he functions on many levels. Thor's various names indicate his many aspects as electromagnetic force which he represents in all its spectrum. His "shelf" (plane) is Thrudvang, his mansion Bilskirnir (flash, from bil momentary + skirnir shining). He is comparable to the Greek Eros, the Vedic Kama, the primal motive power which gave rise to the creative divinities from whom emanated the cosmos. In this capacity he is named Trudgalmer (sound of Thor, Icelandic Thrudgelmir), the sustaining power that maintains the cosmos as a viable functioning entity throughout its existence. Trudgalmer has two sons in space: Mode (force) and Magne (strength), the forces of repulsion and attraction recognized in radiation and gravitation or as centrifugal and centripetal force. As the life force in all living beings Thor is called Vior; as electricity on earth his name is Lorride. The terrestrial Lorride has two adopted children, Tjalfe (speed) and Roskva (work).

Thor is sometimes known as Akuthor [from the verbal root aka ride in a vehicle, travel], sometimes as Vingthor (winged Thor) or Vingner (the winged one). His day is Thursday (Thor's day, Anglo-Saxon Thunresdaeg). His hammer mjolnir (miller) is the sacred instrument with which life forms are created and annihilated. It symbolizes the power that brings beings to birth and is the slayer of giants, whereby their lives are ended, for giants represents the lifeterms of living beings.

(See also: Thor , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)